Alaska South? Car ad set to film in downtown Vallejo

A mounted deer's head and a soda counter are part a former Georgia Street cupcake shop's tranformation into an Alaskan diner, as the street becomes the location for a Volkswagen advertising shoot this weekend. (Mike Jory/Times-Herald)

A location scout needed a place that resembled 1960s-era Alaska for a car commercial, so downtown Vallejo was selected.

Who knew?

Scouting manager Wilson Wu of Oakland said Vallejo was picked for a Volkswagen commercial "because of its great retro look." The ad may air in spring, likely during a sports event, he said.

"We're filming a TV commercial for VW, mainly on Georgia Street and some other places," Wu told the Times-Herald. "We looked at various Alaska towns and tried to match them visually," eventually finding Vallejo.

"Many Alaska towns, like Fairbanks, were built at the turn of the last century, with major construction in the early 1920s and again in the late '60s and early '70s," Wu said. "We scouted a lot of Northern California cities where you'd think there would be a match, but many seem too Disney-like, and I got the idea of trying Vallejo, having been there many times, and I suggested it, scouted it, took pictures of it, and the director saw it and said, 'that's it!'

"It has just the right mix of architecture."

Vallejo's also in the industry's San Francisco "studio zone" for filming, so union travel penalties don't apply, he said.

Not that the company isn't spending money here. It is, Wu, City Councilman Robert McConnell and businessman Peter Mustico said. Mustico manages the Redmen's building at 431 Georgia St., where much of the shooting is set to take place.

"I understand they're making up a section of our building to look like an apartment," Mustico said. "I hear they're also going to film the Empress Theatre. I know they're paying us a good amount. It's gonna be big."

The ad's "gag" has to do with Alaska's geography," Wu said.

"It's a young, hip couple driving from an apartment in downtown to the mountains, and on their way out of town, they pass a diner, a mini-mart and other buildings," Wu said. "It's broad daylight, but the streets are completely empty, like the old Omega Man movie, and the point is why is this so? And finally, you see an old clock showing it's 11, and the last shot, of the couple driving out of town on a rural road, there's a sign reading 'you are entering Fairbanks, Alaska, land of the midnight sun.'

"And they drive off toward Mount McKinley. You'll be asking yourself 'why is this a ghost town?' And the pay-off is, it's not a ghost town, it's the middle of the night."

McConnell and Wu said plans include shots of the boarded-up, old Veterans building near City Park. Permits have been secured, and arrangements made for extra police presence.

Though aware that films and ads have been shot here before, Wu said this may be the first "big ad" filmed downtown and could be a catalyst for positive change.

"It's pictorially interesting and beautiful, and word gets around that this was shot there, and it can engender civic pride," Wu said. "Plus, why go to Canada if we can do Alaska and a lot of other things here?"

Lauding Vallejo's many "beautiful neighborhoods with lovely trees," as well as Mare Island's historic structures and its proximity to other locations like Napa, Wu said the film industry needs schooling about the city.

"There's more that needs to be discovered by people like me," he said.

Contact staff writer Rachel Raskin-Zrihen at (707) 553-6824 or rzrihen@timesheraldonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at Rachelvth.